Mechanical musical instrument



(N0 MbdeL) G. B. KELLY. Mechanical Musioal'lnstrument.

No. 242,419. Patented May 31, 1881;

Avg??? N4 PETERS. Fholo-Lilhagnpher, Washingmn. n c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE B. KELLY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 242,419, dated May 31,1881.

Application filed February 19, 1881.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. KELLY, of Boston, in the county of Suffolkand State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Mechanical Musical Instruments, of which the followingisa specification.

My invention relates to mechanical musical instruments in whichwind-sound-producin g devices are controlled in their operation by aperforated music-sheet traveling over a rest in which are ducts leadingto the said sound-producing devices.

One object of my invention is to provide a simple and desirable meansfor holding the music-sheet tightly down upon the rest, so as to preventany leakage of air between the music-sheet and rest; and another objectis to provide for automatically closing the air-ducts in the rest as theend of the music-sheet leaves the instrument, so as to preventdiscordant sounds produced from the continued operation of the bellowswhen all the reed-ducts are open.

The invention consists in the coi'nbination, in a musical instrument tobe operated by a traveling music-sheet, with the rest for themusic-sheet, and a roller or rollers arranged on one side thereof fordrawingthemusic-sheet over the rest, of a non-rotary drag-bar arran gedupon the side of the rest opposite said roller or rollers, and underwhich the music-sheet passes, and which, byits friction upon themusic-sheet and by holding it down, retards the latter suflieientl y tocause it to be drawn tightly over the rest. With said rest, roller orrollers, and drag-bar are preferably combined springs for impelling thedragbar down upon the music-sheet.

The'invention also consists in the combination, in a musical instrumentadapted to be operated by a traveling music-sheet, of a rest for themusic-sheet containing air-ducts, a damper or cut-off arranged abovesaid airducts, and means to be acted upon by the music-sheet for holdingsaid damper or cut-off elevated above the rest, and preferably springsfor impellin g said damper or cut-elf down ward to close all theair-ducts when the end of the music-sheet travels beyond the means uponwhich it acts to hold the damper or cut-off elevated. I also preferablycombine with the (No model.)

rest, damper, or cut-oh, and the means acted upon by the music-sheet theaforesaid dragbar and springs for im pellin g it downward.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a plan of aninstrument embodying my invention, certain parts of the case beingomitted for the sake of exhibiting the parts beneath; and Fig. 2represents a transverse section thereof upon the dotted line 00 .r, Fig.1.

Similar letters of reference designate corre sponding parts in both thefigures.

A designates the case of the instrument, and A designates stretchers orbearers extending across the instrument and serving to support the topboard, B, which rests upon and is secured to them. The said top board iscomposed, as shown, of two pieces or strips, and cross-bars B unitingthem. In the top board, B, is a rest, 0, which is constructed to receivereeds a, and has air-ducts a extending to the top of the rest andcommunicating with the atmosphere. The reeds a are here arranged to beoperated by pressure; but, it desirable, they might be operated byexhaustion, or pipes or other wind-soulid-producing devices might besubstituted for the reeds.

D designates an expan sible receiver or press ure wind-chest, with whichall the reed-ducts a communicate, and which is supplied with air underpressure by two pairs of bellows, D D arranged upon opposite sides ofsaid reservoir or wind-chest, one bellows of each pair being upon oneside of the receiver, and the other bellows of the pair upon the otherside thereof.

E designates the perforated music-sheet, adapted to travel over the rest0, and F F designate lower and upper feed-rolls, between which the sheetis passed, and by the turning of which it is fed forward. If desirable,in lieu of the two feed-rolls, a single roll might be arranged in theirplace and the music-sheet connected at one end to it, so as to be woundupon it in playing. Thesha't't of the lower feed-roll, F, constitutesalso the means for driving the bellows in this example of my invention,and is provided with a hand-crank, G, for turning it, and with two othercranks, 1), represented as set at right angles to each other. Thebellows D D of each pair are connected by a link, H, so as to worksimultaneously, and said link is provided with an upwardly-projectingarm, 0, which is connected with one of the cranks b by a connecting-rodor pitman, H. It will thus be seen that one bellows of each pair isfilling with air while the other is discharging into the wind-chest, andthat as the cranks I) are set at right angles to each other the pairs ofbellows are operated one after the other, thus providing for acontinuous supply of air to the wind-chest.

The damper or cut-oft which I employ consists of a bar, I, arrangedimmediately over thereed-ducts a; and J designates a second bar arrangedupon one side of and near to the rest 0, and parallel with the damper I,to which it is rigidly connected by arms or crossbars (I, as seenclearly in Fig. l.

The damper I and bar J are provided at each end with arms 6, which arebent at f to form pivots or fulcrums upon which the damper and bar maybe swung upward to raise them above the top of the rest 0. The two arms0 and their pivots or fulerums f are here shown as composed of a singlepiece of wire which is carried around the front edge of the damper I andfits in a longitudinal groove therein, and one end of said wire iscontinued beyond the pivot or fulcrum f and extends transversely to thepivot or fulcrum, so as to form a lever or hand-piece, g, which may bedepressed in order to raise the damper I and bar J.

When not raised by the hand-piece g, and before themusic-sheetEisinserted, the damper I and bar J are impelled downward to tightlyclose all the air-ducts a in on the rest 0 by springs 7L, fixed at oneend in the cross-bars B, and resting at the other end in grooves h inthe bar J, whereby their free ends are held against displacement.

In order to retard the travel of the musicsheet and increase thefriction thereon, I have shown a drag, K, also composed of a non-rotarybar arranged parallel with the damper I and its attached bar J, butentirelyindependent of and separate from said damper and bar. Thedrag-bar K is impelled downward by springs 2', which are independent ofthe springs h, which act upon the bar J, and is adapted to hold themusic-sheet E against an adjacent portion of the top board, 13, and thusretard its movement orproduce adrag upon it. As clearly shown in Fig. 1,the arms a project under the ends of the drag K, and when the hand-pieceg is depressed to raise the damper I and bar J the said arms will actupon the drag K and raise it also. The notches j in the drag K are,however, so deep (as shown in dotted outline in Fig.2) that the arms 0will not act upon the drag K to raise it until the damper l and bar Jhave been lifted somewhat, when a further downward movement of thehand-piece y will raise the damper I, the bar J, and the drag K.

When a music-sheet is to be inserted, the hand-piece g is depressedsufficiently to permit K, the bar J, and under the damper I, and betweenthe feed-rolls F F. The lower feed-roll, F, then being turned by thehand-crank G, the music-sheet is drawn forward, and when the hand-pieceg is released the drag K descends upon and holds the music-sheet againstthe rest, and as the rollers F F are turned the music-sheet is drawntightly over the rest. At the same time the damper I and bar J areimpelled downward by the springs h; but before the damper I descends farenough to touch the music-sheet the bar J rests upon the musicsheet, andas the latter is drawn tightly between the feed-rollers F F and the dragK it holds the damper I in an elevated position,the bar J being themeans through which this is effected. As soon as the back end of themusicsheet passes from under the drag K there is no tension upon thesheet, and it readily yields under the bar J, permitting the damper I todescend upon the rest, thus preventing any air from leaking under themusic-sheet through the air-ducts a, and as soon as the music-sheetpasses the rest the damper tightly closes all the ducts and prevents anydiscordant sounds produced by the bellows being operated while all theair-ducts are open.

L designates a bar extending across the instrument, between the damper Iand the feedrolls F F, andhaving its lower edge, which is adjacent tothe damper, beveled or inclined, so that when the music-sheet isinserted under the damper its edge will be prevented from curling up andpassing over both feed-rolls, and will be directed between the rolls.

The top of the case A is open, and is provided with swell-covers Ahinged at k, and adapted to be swung upward to open, as shown in Fig.2.In the adjacent ed ges of these swellcovers are notches l, which receivethe ends of a rod or wire, on, which is secured in a lever, a, hinged atone end, and adapted to be depressed by a push piece or button, 0,extendin g through the top of the case. By pushing the piece or buttondown the ends of the rod or wire an act upon the edges of theswell-covers A and thus raise them both. \Vhen released they close orreturn to the position shown in dotted outline in Fig. 2 by theirweight.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

1. In amechanicalmusical instrument adapted to be operated by atraveling music-sheet, the combination of a rest, a roller or rollersupon one side of said rest for drawing the musicshect forward, and anon-rotary drag-bar upon the other side of said rest under which themusic-sheet passes, substantially as specified.

2. In a mechanicalmusicalinstrumentadapted to be operated by a travelingmusic-sheet, the combination of a rest for the music-sheet, a roller orrollers upon one side of said rest for drawing the music-sheet forward,a nonrotary drag-bar upon the other side of said of the music-sheetbeingpassed under the drag rest under which the music-sheet passes, and

IIO

springs for impelling said drag downward, substantially as specified.

3. Inamechanicalmusicalinstrumentadapted to be operated by a travelingmusic-sheet, the combination of a rest for the music-sheet containingair-ducts, a damper or cut-ofi' arranged above said rest, and meansacted upon by the music-sheet for holding said damper or cut-ofi'elevated above the rest, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

4:. In amechanicalmusicalinstrumentadapted to be operated by a travelingmusic-sheet, the combination of a rest for the music-sheet containingair-ducts, a damper or cut-01f arranged above said rest, means actedupon by the music-sheet for holding said damper or cutofi" elevatedabove the rest, and springs for impelling said damper or cut-ofit'downward when releasedby the music-sheet, substantially as specified.

5. In a mechanical musical instrument adapted to be operated by atraveling music-sheet, the combination of a rest for the music-sheetcontaining air-ducts, a damper or cut-ofl arranged above said rest,across-bar under which the music-sheet is to pass, arranged parallelwith and connected with said damper or cutofi so as to hold the latterelevated, substantially as specified.

6. The combination of the restO afeed roller or rollers, the damper Iand its connected cross-bar J, and the drag K, substantially asspecified.

\Vitncsses: GEORGE E. KELLY.

GEO. F. DYER, J osrn A. GIVEN.

